RIL’s Annual Digital Services Revenue Crosses INR 1 Lakh Cr Mark, Jio Q4 ARPU At INR 167.6

Led by a strong performance by its digital and retail verticals, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) on Friday reported a 26.2% year-on-year (YoY) rise in its consolidated net profit for financial year 2021-22 (FY22) at INR 67,845 Cr.

The oil-to-telecom major’s revenue grew 47% YoY to INR 7.92 Lakh Cr in FY22. For the first time, the annual revenue from its digital services business crossed the INR 1 Lakh Cr mark in FY22. The company’s digital arm also recorded an all-time high annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of INR 40,268 Cr during the year.

RIL’s retail business also recorded an annual revenue of nearly INR 2 Lakh Cr and a record annual EBITDA of INR 12,423 Cr.

The Jio Story 

Jio Platforms, a subsidiary of RIL which houses its telecom company Reliance Jio Infocomm, reported a 17.1% growth in gross revenue for FY22 at INR 95,804 Cr, while net profit rose 23.6% to INR 15,487 Cr. 

Jio Platforms’ EBITDA grew 20.9% to INR 39,112 Cr during FY22.

On a quarterly basis, Jio Platforms’ net profit increased 22.9% YoY to Rs INR 4,313 Cr during the quarter ended March 2022, while gross revenue rose 20.7% to INR 26,139 Cr during the quarter. EBITDA grew 27.4% to INR 10,918 Cr during the January-March quarter.

Jio Platforms recorded data traffic of 24.6 Bn GB during Q4 FY22, a 47.5% growth over the same period last year. This growth was primarily led by higher average revenue per user (ARPU) and ramping up of wireline services, RIL said.

Its ARPU rose 10.5% quarter-on-quarter to INR 167.6 during the March quarter.

The increase in ARPU comes despite a fall in subscriber numbers. RIL said that SIM consolidation post the hike undertaken by the company in December last year led to a net reduction of 10.9 million in customer base in the March quarter. It attributed the increase in ARPU to better subscriber mix and increase in the average data and voice consumption per subscriber in Q4.

Besides, RIL said Jio conducted extensive 5G field trials across eight states,  testing a comprehensive suite of products, and achieving a peak user throughput of more than 1.5Gbps during the trials. 

Meanwhile, the company continues to take steps to expand its digital services. Recently, RIL’s subsidiary Viacom18 inked a strategic partnership with Bodhi Tree Systems to transform it into one of the largest TV and digital streaming companies in India. Under the deal, Bodhi Tree will invest INR 13,500 Cr and Reliance Projects and Property Management Services will invest INR 1,645 Cr in Viacom18. Besides, the JioCinema OTT app will also be transferred to Viacom18.

Reliance Retail Picks Up Pace

The Mukesh Ambani-led company’s retail business, Reliance Retail, posted a 28.7% YoY increase in its net profit to INR 7,055 Cr in FY22, while gross revenue grew 26.7% to almost INR 2 lakh crore.

The company said that it unveiled 2,566 stores during FY22, taking Reliance Retail’s physical stores to 15,196. Its customer base grew to 193 Mn through its portfolio of stores and digital commerce platforms in FY22, recording a growth of 24% YoY. 

The retail arm of the RIL said that it ‘more than doubled its daily orders year on year across all its digital commerce platforms on the back of stronger product portfolio and attractive offers’. It further added that its merchant partner base grew 3X over the last year during the March quarter.

Meanwhile, Reliance Retail’s online selling platform JioMart continued to scale up new merchant partner onboarding as it expanded  its presence to newer geographies, RIL said.